Gender and Emotion Management

Abstract

Arlie Hochschild’s work shifted sociological attention to how emotions are not just felt but managed. She argued we cultivate emotional experiences in ourselves and others, what she termed “emotion work,” in gendered and classed ways. Critical to emotion work are the “feeling rules” or the social scripts for what we should feel, how we should express our feelings, how much feeling to express, and for how long in a given social context. This chapter examines how we gender emotions through the socialization of gendered feeling rules and performing and policing gendered emotion work. It also examines the institutionalization of feeling rules and emotion work within families, schools, and workplaces. In each case, emotions are not just a byproduct and constituent of the gender social structure but also race, class, and sexuality. The chapter ends with a call for more research on the intersection of gendered emotions with disabilities and a thorough accounting of the role of the beneficiaries of emotion work in policing feeling rules.